"Some people have alleged that GCHQ is exploiting a technical loophole in legislation that allows them to intercept external communications - that is, communications either sent or received outside the UK - at will and without authorisation. This is... nonsense."

Okay, so perhaps you could reveal more details about what GCHQ is actually doing and whether or not it's actually got any purpose towards national security? Oh, sorry, that would be "helping the terrorists win" of course:

But Mrs May warned that it would be "cavalier and reckless" to let the public know details of which terrorist plots had been thwarted by the security services.

"Considerable" threats to UK security were developing with the emergence of militant group Isis, the collapse of Syria, the activities of Boko Haram in Nigeria, and the "expanding scope" of cyber crime, the home secretary said.

In other words: FUD FUD FUD, be afraid!!! Oh, and of course, in her mind, she'd actually prefer it if the UK were even more of a surveillance state:

She concluded by renewing a call to change the law to hand the security services more powers to scrutinise online communication

I'm sorry, but this continuing game of "we're not spying on you... but we need more powers to spy on you because FEAR FEAR FEAR... and we can't give you any evidence because you all might die" is getting rather tired.

getting as bad, if not worse than the USA! in fact, more like the countries that were defeated for trying the same thing many years ago. this time, it's being done without firearms but by using a more dangerous tool, underhandedness! by witholding exactly what your own governments are doing against their own citizens! absolutely disgraceful! 99% of terrorist attacks are in the warped minds of the ones telling everyone else to be careful

Re:

I'd like that very much but until America stops terrorising the British with their cruel and unusual abuses of words like 'football' I don't think we can consider your kind as anything less than an enemy of the state.

A carefully-worded non-denial

Some people have alleged that GCHQ is exploiting a technical loophole in legislation that allows them to intercept external communications - that is, communications either sent or received outside the UK - at will and without authorisation. This is... nonsense.

Notice how she doesn't say that mass state surveillance isn't going on, she is merely saying that it isn't happening without authorisation. Personally I'd be rather shocked if she said that it was going on without authorisation as (if ministerial responsibility meant something) it would be her job on the line. The Government has already made it clear that it believes mass surveillance is perfectly legal, and the authorisation needed for it is simply a piece of paper, signed by May or one of her colleagues once every 6 months.

Re: Huh?

you know, that is unexpectedly insightful...

i've thought about these issues from many angles, but neglected to take that into consideration, GREAT POINT...

as per usual, the ONLY people who don't know about the evil being done with OUR MONEY, is US; all the pakistanis, etc know they are being droned to death, its just that WE DON'T KNOW 'WE' are doing it...

(not that there aren't a disappointing number of citizens who don't give a shit about droning poor brown people a half a planet away for no good -or legal- reason...)

Re: Torture in the UK

Oh, I don't think anyone is fooled. That aspect of the UK is plainly obvious with just a casual glance. The sad thing is that the US keeps borrowing ideas from the UK (and vice versa) for how to make things even more police-statey.

Above

I would not believe anything the government told me, if they said it was Wednesday and it was actually Wednesday, I still would not believe them. I have never known so many liars work in one place, surely this is one for the book of records?

Well, yeah, the excuse is rather tiresome, but damn, it works so well and has for so long without fail that there is no chance in hell that they're gonna replace it with another tired excuse any time soon.

The whole "terrorists" thing wore thin years ago

Most of these "terrorists" are false flags anyway, but even if they weren't, there are more pressing dangers facing the British people, like falling down the stairs or being electrocuted by their toasters.